Group14 Engineering was an energy consultant with an office space problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I joined, we were about 30 people, and now we\u2019re 75 people. So we just kept trying to shove everybody in and knock down walls, and we\u2019re just at a point where that\u2019s just not working for us anymore,\u201d said Celeste Cizik, one of the owners of the Denver company.<\/p>\n
The company spent decades in 7,500 square feet at\u00a01325 E. 16th Ave. in City Park West. But to solve its problem, it\u2019s\u00a0moving into nearly 11,600 square feet at 1278 Lincoln St. in Cap Hill, where the alt-weekly Westword also has its office.<\/p>\n
Group14\u2019s expertise is in making buildings more energy efficient, with an eye for projects spanning at least 50,000 square feet. The company has had a hand in projects including the One River North apartment building, the Populus Hotel downtown and the city\u2019s newest skyscraper at 1900 Lawrence St.<\/p>\n
But projects of that magnitude have been harder to come by in Denver\u2019s\u00a0softening real estate market.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the recent last couple of years, we do see more projects that go through design, but then go on hold, that once they run the numbers and they just can\u2019t make it work. They\u2019ll do value engineering, but it\u2019s just still too expensive, and they\u2019re not going to be able to sell the building or rent the building for the price it would require to compensate for the cost,\u201d Cizik said.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, Cizik said, Group14 is diversified across a broad range of building types. Income-restricted housing developments have replaced the work of larger market-rate projects, for instance. Work at the Denver International Airport has also kept the company busy.<\/p>\n